Mr Arjun Ram Meghwal, Member of Parliament from Bikanir, Rajasthan ranks No 1 among all the MPs of Lok Sabha for participation in debates and he received the Sansad Ratna Award 2013 in a function held at IIT Madras. The Award is instituted by Prime Point Foundation. Mr T S Krishna Murthy, Former Chief Election Commissioner of India presented the Awards.

Dr K Rosaiah, the Governor of Tamil Nadu was the Chief Guest. Since Mr Arjun Ram Meghwal arrived late due to flight delay, the Award was presented in the next session, after the departure of the Governor.

After receiving the Awards, Mr Arjun Ram Meghwal in his acceptance speech, talked about the disruption in Parliament. He said, disruption was also part of the Parliament function under rules, to draw the attention of the Government on many vital issues. He said, but for disruptions, the culprits in 2G, Delhi gang-rape, and coal-gate would not have been arrested. However, they would ensure smooth functioning of the Parliament.

Monday, April 29, 2013

A National Seminar on politics, democracy and governance was held by Prime Point Foundation on 20th April 2013 jointly with IIT Madras in their Auditorium. The National Seminar was inaugurated by Dr K Rosaiah, Governor of Tamil Nadu. Top performing Lok Sabha MPs were presented with Sansad Ratna 2013 Awards, instituted by Prime Point Foundation.

As part of the National Seminar, Mr Chakshu Rai of PRS Legislative Research made a presentation on 'Overview of Indian Parliament - Tracking the work of legislators'. During his presentation, he explained the overall functions of Indian Parliament and the duties of the Parliamentarians.

In our earlier posting, we had published a brief report about the presentation of Sansad Ratna Awards and launching of ezine PreSense to mark the inauguration of National Seminar on politics, democracy and governance.Mr T S Krishna Murthy, Former Chief Election Commissioner of India presented the Awards to six top performing MPs of Lok Sabha.

Quoting Mr Edmund Berk, a well known Parliamentarian of UK, T S Krishna Murthy said that the people should elect a Member who takes care of national interest, if there is a conflict between constituency interest and national interest. He expressed concern over (1) the election of members with 15 to 20 percent of votes (2) money power in elections and (3) lack of internal democracy in political parties. He recalled the suggestions for Electoral reforms submitted by him, when he was the Chief Election Commissioner of India to the Prime Minister in 2004. The Government is yet to take action on these suggestions.

Mr T S Krishna Murthy also suggested that Government can set up a fund to take care of the election expenses of the political parties. All corporates can be asked to donate to this fund which can be given tax exemption. This would avoid nexus between corporates and the political parties, The entire audience applauded when he gave this suggestion.

Dr Rosaiah launched the special edition of ezine PreSense marking the inauguration of National Seminar on politics, democracy and governance.

Dr K Rosaiah, Governor of Tamil Nadu during his speech expressed concern over the disruptions in Parliament. Quoting PRS Legislative Research, he said that 32% of the Parliament time was wasted due to disruptions in the current 15th Lok Sabha. Due to such disruptions, many bills could not be discussed and passed. Even many of the MPs could not present their views in spite of their preparations. Quoting the speech of Mr Pranabkumar Mukherjee, President of India in the Joint Session of Parliament recently, Dr Rosaiah said that such disruptions may create cynicism in the minds of people who may lose faith in the democratic institutions. He appealed to all Members of Parliament to ensure zero disruption. He also wanted the MPs to explore the visionary projects for their constituency that can help the develop of neighbouring districts also during their tenure .

In the panel discussions that followed the inauguration, the panelists discussed these two aspects viz. (1) elctoral reforms and (2) disruption of Parliament to find some solution. There was a general consensus among the panelists and the audience that electoral reforms and the smooth functioning of Parliament are essential for a healthy democracy. Though disruption is permitted under Parliament rules to register the protest, everybody felt that it should not exceed the limit.

Please watch this video (20 minutes) to see the presentation of Awards and inspiring speeches of Dr K Rosaiah and T S Krishna Murthy.

Saturday, April 27, 2013

This special edition this unique 73rd edition (April 2013) of your ezine PreSense was released by Dr K. Rosaiah, His Excellency The Governor of Tamil Nadu during the Sansad Ratna Award function on 20th April 2013. With the launch of your ezine PreSense by the Governor of Tamil Nadu, this ezine enters a new era of credibility adding more responsibility to our team, to continue to provide highest quality contents in future.

On this happy occassion, editorial team thanks all the readers for the sustained support and feedback.

After the launch of this special edition by the Governor, we added the photos and the proceedings of the Sansad Ratna Award function. Since the General Elections will be held in few months, this ezine will be useful for all the citizens to understand our constitutional democracy, which we may have to be proud of.

Thursday, April 25, 2013

In our earlier article, we presented the report on the presentation of Sansad Ratna Awards 2013 by Mr T S Krishna Murthy, Former Chief Election Commissioner of India in the presence of Dr K. Rosaiah, The Governor of Tamil Nadu.

To coincide with the Award function, Prime Point Foundation, jointly with Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Madras organised a National Seminar on politics, democracy and governance. This seminar included three sessions, including one session on Indian Parliamentary system by PRS Legislative Research and two panel discussions.

Presentation on Indian Parliamentary system

Chakshu Roy (inset) making presentation

Chakshu Roy of PRS Legislative Research, Delhi made a presentation on the Indian Parliamentary system and the functions of the Parliament. He also explained as to how media and public can track the the performance of legislators. The presentation is given below.

Six Award winning MPs Anandrao Adsul, S S Ramasubbu, Arjun Ram Meghwal, Hansraj Gangaram Ahir, Rama Devi and Dr Jhansi Botcha Lakshmi were invited to be the panelists to share their success stories. These MPs shared their work procss to achieve this level. The topics like disruption in parliament, linking of rivers and other nationally important issues were discussed. They also explained as to how the raising of questions and participation in debates help to get the advantage for the people. The programme was anchored by Susan Koshy and V Rajendran translated the Hindi speeches into English.

Another panel discussion with various political leaders of Tamil Nadu and socially conscious persons was held in the afternoon. The entire proceedings were held in Tamil. Ms Bhanu Gomes anchored the discussions.

The
true meaning of Indian politics based on Constitutional democracy, possible
hurdles for a new political entrant, qualities for a new political entrant,
political parties reforms, electoral reforms, Political parties' selection of
candidates , Parties' ideologies, Media's role in democracy, paid news problem
in Media, Must-have changes in Education system, muscle power& money power
in politics, high cost of elections, problems in policy making, problems in
implementation, decentralization of power, Women' safety in politics, Women's
Bill were all discussed.

The professional handling of Dr Sudarshan, Sasi and their team in various departments of IIT Madras made the event a grand show.

On behalf of Sansad Ratna Team, Susan, Rajendran, Bhanu, Abdul Gani, Pradeep, Kannan, Sukruti worked tirelessly planning every minutest details. Participation of the Governor of Tamil Nadu, six award winning MPs, senior political leaders from different parties with a constructive discussion added the credibility of the Sansad Ratna Award.

The Sansad Ratna Awardees carried a pleasant memory of this event and motivated them to excel their own performance in the days to come.

Prime Point Foundation, and ezine PreSense honour the top performing MPs with
‘Sansad Ratna Awards’ for the past four years, based on their participation in debates, raising questions, introduction
of private member bills and attendance.
The data is made available by PRS Legislative Research, New Delhi. This year the Foundation has added two more
categories to include women MPs and young MPs
less than 35 years of age.

4th Annual Sansad Ratna Awards 2013 was held at IIT Madras on Saturday the 20th April 2013. A national seminar on politics, democracy and governance also was organised jointly with Department of Humanities and Social Sciences of IIT Madras. The purpose of the seminar and the Award is to create awareness among the people about the democracy and governance.

Sansad Ratna Awards 2013

The Foundation selected 5 MPs for overall performance tally, 4 top performers among women MPs and one young MP under 35 for the awards. Out of these MPs, six MPs received the awards at Chennai from Mr T S Krishna Murthy, Former Chief Election Commissioner of India in the presence of Dr K Rosaiah, His Excellency The Governor of Tamil Nadu. Others could not participate due to their preoccupation in their constituency.

Mr
Anandrao Adsul, Shiv Sena MP from Maharashtra
was honoured for maintaining the top position in raising questions in the
current 15th Lok Sabha. He
has raised 1055 questions till the end of last sittings in March 2013 with a
total participation tally of 1091 for debates, questions and private member
bills. Mr Anandrao Adsul was the topper
in raising questions even in the 14th Lok Sabha, by raising 1255
questions with a total participation tally of 1290.

Mr
S S Ramasubbu, Congress MP from Tamil Nadu secured the second position in the
total performance tally of 1038 and maintains No 1 position among Tamilnadu MPs
from the time the awards were instituted.

Mr
Arjun Ram Meghwal, BJP MP from Rajasthan received the Award for the second
year for his outstanding performance in debates - by participating in 386
debates. His total tally is 1002.

Mr
Hansraj Gangaram Ahir, BJP MP from Maharashtra
was honoured for being No 1 in the category
‘introduction of private member bills’ with a total participation tally of 996. He has introduced 31 Private Member Bills in
this Lok Sabha.

It
may also be noted that Mr Hansraj Ahir and Mr Arjun Ram Meghwal have together
introduced 51 private member bills, out of the 372 private member bills
(14%) introduced in the current Lok
Sabha by all the members.

Mr
Anandrao Adsul, Mr Ramasubbu and Mr Hansraj Gangaram Ahir received the
Awards fourth time in a row.

Among
the top performing women MPs, though 4 women MPs were selected and invited, two
MPs received the Awards at Chennai.
These women MPs were honoured with ‘Sansad Mahila Ratna’ Award.

Mrs
Rama Devi, BJP MP from Bihar secured third
position among all the women MPs in the Lok Sabha with her total score of 579.

Dr
Jhansi Botcha Lakshmi, Congress MP from Andhra Pradesh has topped in debates
among women MPs by participating in 131 debates. Her total participation tally is 478.

The
purpose of such Award function is to recognize the top performers at national
level and to motivate others to perform better.

Prime
Point Foundation is the only organization in India which honours the top
performing MPs every year based on their performance.

A
National Seminar on politics, democracy and governance will be held to coincide
with this Award function. Award winning
MPs and other Tamilnadu political leaders will be participating in the panel
discussion.

Launching of special edition of ezine PreSense

Prime Point Foundation brought out a special edition of ezine (73rd edition) to coincide with this occassion bringing out various aspects of Parliament functions and the role of MPs. The ezine was launched by Dr K. Rosaiah, His Excellency The Governor of Tamil Nadu. The special edition may be downloaded from http://www.prpoint.com/ezine/presense0413.pdf.

Planting of sapling in honour of Sansad Ratna Awardees 2013

All the six Award Winning MPs handed over a sapling to K Abdul Gani, Convenor of Green Kalam initiative. The sapling was later on the same day planted inside the IIT Madras campus in honour of the top performing MPs. The purpose is to create an awareness about the environment protection. All the MPs assured that they would actively promote the environmental protection concept in their respective constituencies.

1.Since His Excellency Governor is participating in the event, please follow the security and protocol norms.

2.Please switch off your mobile or keep in silent mode during the event.

3.Since the first programme starts at 9.30 AM, please remain seated at 9.25 AM. Please remain seated at 10.45 am after the first tea break, before the arrival of His Excellency The Governor.

4.The venue IC & SR Auditorium is very near to Gajendra Circle and opposite to Admin Building at IIT Madras.

5.As per rules, no political flags are allowed inside the IIT Campus. Only National flag is permitted. Delegates are requested to enter the IIT Campus without any political flags flying in their vehicles.

Any one can participate. No registration fee. Interested can register the names through the following link.

About this Award

Prime Point Foundation has been honouring the top performing Members of Parliament based on their performance in the House. (Questions raised, debates participated, issues raised, private bills introduced and attendance),

From 2012, the Foundation has named this award as 'Sansad Ratna Award'.